How Would the VA Pay GI Bill Tuition When There Is a Home and Host School, and a Third Party Involved?

Q: How will VA distribute the tuition for a semester abroad. Home school cannot charge tuition to the VA for a semester abroad because the classes are taken at the host school and payment needs to go to host school. Host school sends bill to a third party in the U.S.A. for collection. Third party sends bill for tuition and all fees to student. Semester abroad has been arranged through the International Program Office at home university. International Program Office works directly with third party which then works with the host university. Thank you!

A: First of all, is your foreign host school GI Bill approved? If not, that could be a problem as most likely the VA would not authorize or pay you to attend.

You did not say which GI Bill you are using, but if it is the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB), then the money would come to you, the third party would bill you and you would be responsible to pay your own tuition, books, fees and other education-related expenses. Currently, you would get $1,473 per month under the MGIB.

If the third party cannot bill the VA, then it doesn’t sound like they are set up to take the Post 9/11 GI Bill. If that is the case, you may be out of luck getting the New GI Bill to pay for that semester. If they were approved to take the Post 9/11 GI Bill, they would have a billing procedure set-up to bill the VA.

If your home school and host school were set up under the primary/secondary school system, it would be easy. Your primary school would tell your secondary school which classes you would take. Once you have finished those classes, those credits would be transferred to your degree plan at your primary school.

The other thing to keep in mind is if the classes you want to take at your host school are not on your degree plan, the VA would not pay for them anyway.